Oswestry’s tap water should start tasting better by the middle of this week, bosses at supplier Severn Trent Water have promised residents.

Staff from the firm visited several properties in the town earlier this month following a flood of complaints about the water’s quality and taste.

And they today revealed they will be back in two months to see if there have been any improvements to the water.

During a three-day visit, Severn Trent also held public drop-in sessions and spoke to about 150 people, hearing complaints about the smell of chlorine in the supply and about the hardness of the water.

In a letter to owners of properties which were visited, David Essex, water strategy manager, said: “Tasting the water has allowed me to better understand the concerns you have about your water supply and I am now working very closely with a team at Severn Trent Water to investigate my findings and estab- lish what work we can do to improve the taste for you.

“In the short term there are some actions we will be taking, such as flushing the water mains in Oswestry.

“The background taste of the water should start to improve from the middle of [this] week, as we introduce new boreholes in Nesscliffe,” he added.

“In fact we would be keen to get feedback from you in the coming weeks to see if you have noticed a difference.

“We will continue to develop our short and medium term plans to continue with the improvements and plan to return in early December, when we will run another drop-in session to see how the improvements we are making are progressing.”